MANDATORY ROTC | Kabataan Partylist says military training measure will not solve education crisis

October 27, 2022 , 03:58 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(October 27, 2022) – A left-wing party-list group representing the youth sector on Thursday slammed a proposal in Congress to enact a mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program before the year ends, saying it cannot solve the education crisis.

Kabataan Partylist executive vice president Renee Louise Co said the proposal to revive mandatory ROTC, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been pushing for senior high school students, will only be an additional burden to students.

“Sa halip na tunay na maging ‘ligtas’ ang balik-eskwela, ang maaaring panunumbalik ng Mandatory ROTC ay pwedeng maglagay sa pahamak sa mga estudyante na nais lamang mag-aral nang mabuti,” Co said in a statement.

The party-list group said Congress can push for the development of nationalism and discipline among Filipino youth by revamping existing programs such as the National Service Training Program (NSTP).

Two weeks ago, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) had agreed to pass six of its 29 priority measures before the end of 2022, including the mandatory ROTC bill.

Proponents of the mandatory ROTC bill have stressed that the program will help develop discipline and love of country among the Filipino youth.

But progressive groups disagreed on this, noting how the program was no longer made mandatory two decades ago due to reports of abuses that occurred under the program.

The ROTC program was initially mandatory for able-bodied male students in universities and colleges until in 2002, when it was replaced with NSTP after the killing of ROTC cadet and University of Santo Tomas (UST) student Mark Chua. It is believed his killing was linked to his exposé of alleged corruption in the ROTC unit of his university.

Kabataan said LEDAC’s recommendations seemed to be “out of touch” with the situation of the Filipino youth, noting that only three of the 29 priority bills were related to education and none directly sought to promote learning recovery and the safe reopening of schools.

“Hindi naman masasagot ng Mandatory ROTC ang siksikang mga classroom, kawalan ng pasilidad, panganib ng COVID-19 at iba pang pangamba sa face-to-face classes,” Co said.

The Education Department under Vice President Sara Duterte planned to make 100% face-to-face classes mandatory for public and private schools by November 2.

But this was set aside, allowing private schools and some government schools to hold blended learning modalities after Typhoon Karding struck the northern part of Luzon and damaged hundreds of classrooms, exacerbating a shortage of education facilities in the country.

(MM)

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